Domino catalysis for selective dehydrogenation of ethane with shifted thermodynamic equilibrium

Catalytic dehydrogenation of ethane is a promising non-petroleum route to produce ethylene but it suffers from insufficient conversion at mild temperatures because of the thermodynamic equilibrium limitation, leading to the high cost of product separation. Here, we developed a reaction process by interleaving the cobaltosilicate zeolite catalyst (CoS-1) for non-oxidative dehydrogenation and sodium tungstate-modified manganese oxide promoter (MnOx@Na2WO4) for selective hydrogen combustion in multiple beds as a domino mode in the reactor. The ethane dehydrogenation and hydrogen consumption occurred alternately on the spatially separated sites, which efficiently promoted ethane dehydrogenation by shifting the equilibrium to improve the ethane conversion with hindered excessive hydrocarbon combustion. As a result, the per-pass ethane conversion up to 43.2% and ethylene selectivity at 93.1% were achieved at 590°C with 0.8 bar of ethane feed. This domino process would provide an efficient strategy for boosting the thermodynamically limited reactions and improving the vitality of the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethane.